Some Aspects of the Tibetan and Mongolian Interferences in the Oirat Manuscripts of the 17th Century (the case study of the Sutra “King of Aspiration Prayers”)

Abstract

This research is dedicated to the translation peculiarities of the Buddhist manuscript “The King of Aspiration Prayers”(sanscrit. ārya bhadra cārya pranidhāna rāja; tibetan. ’phags-pa bzang-po spyod-pa’i smon-lam-gyi rgyal-po; oirad. хutugtu sayin yabudaliyin irö:liyin xa:n) from Tibetan to the Oirat language. The class of this religious works in Sanscrit is called “pranidhana” (sanscrit. pranidhāna), in Tibetan - “mon-lam” (tib. smonlam) and “jor’ool” in Mongolian (mong. irügel). There is no Russian equivalent for this class of works, that is why the author uses a literary translation ‘Tsar blagikh pozhelanii’ for it. The Tibetan sutra’s text is one of the earliest translations from Sanscrit and the major sample of the later Mahayana Buddhism literature. It is also the 40th path in the Mahayana sutra of “Avatamsaka” which belongs to the theoretical class of sutras and was finally formed in Sogdian and Khotan in the second part of the 4th century. Pandita Jinamitra and Tibetan lotsava Yeshe-De (tib. ye-shes sde) are mentioned as the translators from Sanscrit to Tibetan. One of the first Tibetan Buddhist monks Vairochana Rakshita was named as the editor of this translation. This text plays a specific role in the commentary tradition of the well-known Indian masters and the prominent Buddhist preachers of Tibet as well. Because of “The King of Aspiration Prayers” sutra popularity, the text was included in the collection of Buddhist sutras named “Gandjur” (tib. dka-’gyur), and it was also translated into Mongolian and became a part of Mongolian Gandjur. The author of the Oirat translation was Zaya Pandita Namkai Jamtso. The peculiarity of the Oirat text is word-for-word translation from Tibetan which strongly follows the original both in vocabulary, when a definite Tibetan word is used instead of its synonym, and in syntax, when the word order in the Oirat sentences can hardly be understood without considering the Tibetan original. However, at that time there were no strong rules for translation from Tibetan to Mongolian and Oirat. The Oirat translation tradition reached its high point later in the 8th century when translation of Mongolian Danjur was made. At the same time, we should notice that the Oirat translation tradition distinguishes in its accuracy which allows for preserving all the syntactical elements of the original Tibetan texts. Consequently, it can be regarded as predecessor of the Mongolian translation tradition according to which the work on translation of Mongolian Danjur was finished.